fresh from successful runs at The Banff Summer Arts Festival & Center Stage, New York

A fresh, vital, and engaging retelling of the greatest play on earth…Hope and Hell presents Hamlet (solo), an exciting one-man version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet performed by British born, Indo-Irish Canadian Raoul Bhaneja described by The Globe and Mail as “an impeccable stage and screen performer”. Bhaneja was the recipient of The Christopher Plummer Fellowship at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre (London.) He will be familiar to film audiences for his work in The Sentinel, Godsend, Ararat, and Touch of Pink. This fall, he will be appearing regularly in the new CW show RUNAWAY.

Robert Ross Parker is the co-artistic director of the innovative and award winning Vampire Cowboys Theatre in New York City. He has directed all their productions including the recent sold out hit, Living Dead in Denmark. As an actor he has worked extensively with The Flying Machine, and played the title role in their Frankenstein at Soho Rep, and on tour.

This unique retelling of one of Shakespeare’s most beloved classics debuted in Toronto in January 2006 at Theatre Passe Muraille. Hamlet (solo) combines the ancient art of storytelling and the modern “one-man show”.

“Raoul Bhaneja’s HAMLET (solo) is a triumph of both virtuosity and truthfulness — a rare combination, indeed. This sensitive, diverse actor charts a course for us through Hamlet’s determination and doubts, through his intellect to his ultimate passion, with a clarity and conviction which very few traditional productions provide. Raoul and his creative team have honoured the Bard by trusting his language to create an entire world of woe and wonders. It does so triumphantly!”
John Murrell – Artistic Director, Banff Center Summer Arts Festival

“The finest show presented in the Backspace at Theatre Passe Muraille in the last 30 years…. It was like being in the room with Shakespeare as he wrote Hamlet.”
Layne Coleman- Artistic Director Theatre Passe Muraille

“Without set, props or even other actors to help him move things along, Bhaneja engages in urgent, energetic storytelling. The athleticism required to memorize and deliver 15,000 words of script is itself exhilarating to watch. That Bhaneja should also embody Gertrude’s softness or Claudius’s guilty conscience is an added bonus”.
Kate Pedersen of Now Magazine Toronto

“Raoul Bhaneja plays about 17 characters, with economy, intelligence and simplicity…for every daring actor there should be an audience.”
Lynn Slotkin of CBC Radio.

“his control of the text is impressive…with a clarity that is as refreshing as it is rare…constrained and thoughtful direction.”
John Colbourne of The Toronto Sun

“Visually, Bhaneja manages the instant changes very well. He and director Robert Ross Parker, have developed a graceful repertoire of movements and gesture that enables one character’s action to merge into the next one’s response. Especially striking is the sight and sound of Ophelia sobbing even, it seems, as Hamlet and company leave the stage. “
Robert Cushman of The National Postwww.hamletsolo.com